If you are hungry!

When I was in my final year of graduate school I was able to work with an incredible woman who supervised my 500 practicum hours. She taught me how to do a proper mental health assessment, a mental status examination and she helped me utilize and hone my rudimentary interventions to promote lasting change in my clients. Out of all the lessons she provided the one that helped me the most was a simple phrase, “You’re not going to die if you are hungry”.

To give a little background, my clinical supervisor suffered from a liver disease and needed to be placed on the transplant list. In order to do so she needed to lose about 150 pounds. Looking at her, you would have never guessed she was overweight so I asked her what her secret was. She told me, “When I was hungry I never thought about dying if I didn’t lose weight, I thought the opposite. I was not going to die if I was a little hungry”.

Her quote has entered my mind about 1000 times since I started losing weight. Every time I go to bed hungry, or I’ve eaten my allotted calories and I am still hungry I remember that phrase.

Last week was full of over eating and today, my body was startled by the sudden lack of food. I ate a normal breakfast and by 10 am I was starving! (Not really, but you get it). I had my almonds and that did not help in the slightest! I had to tell myself, “dude, you’re not going to die, simmer down.” I ate my lunch and the sandwich did nothing to make me feel full, once again, I said, I am not going to die if I am hungry. By dinner I was able to stave off those hunger cravings and I had a modest cinco de mayo Carne asada dinner. Right now, I am hungry, but…. I will not die.

1 Comment

True, I will not die if I am a little hungry. As I have lost weight I’ve reunited with that grumble in my stomach. I missed that grumble. It’s normal and healthy for your body to communicate “hunger”. Years of stuffing myself when I wasn’t hungry – years of filling my stomach in a feeble attempt at filling my soul …I didn’t even recognize hunger and how to answer that grumble. Thank you for your post and the reminder that – I am not going to die if I am hungry.